With scandal swirling around the Daily Kos and Research 2000 polls, there are many questions that need answers. Since these polls were widely reported as fact by many in the mainstream media, and since Daily Kos has declared support of the DISCLOSE Act, one wonders what might have been public record had the DISCLOSE act already been law.
For instance, Kos paid for over 150 operator assisted polls. That is quite expensive. I mean millions of dollars expensive. Where did Kos, and more specifically, Markos Moulitsas get the cash for such an operation? Surely, as a supporter of DISCLOSE, he wouldn’t mind publishing his cash sources.
Also, the groups that paid for this operation are most likely exempt from disclosure, should DISCLOSE become the law of the land. The money most likely came from left-wing orgs, which the Democrats carved out of the new disclosure regulations to protect their money trail.
Under current finance laws and under the House of Representative passed, partisan DISCLOSE Act, we are left to speculate about whether labor unions or others are big donors to an operation like Kos, which continually pumps up their candidates and peddles their talking points.
So, it remains up in the air if Daily Kos was just fronting for Big Labor, providing unreported in-kind contributions to favored candidates or just trying to skew the public debate related to attitudes toward their favored leftist candidates.
One thing that is absolutely clear, is that Markos Moulitsas feels that he got ripped off by his pollster, and is demanding that all the research be provided to him through the legal discovery process.
The irony shouldn’t be lost on anyone that while Markos is demanding full disclosure from his pollster, he is hiding behind the laws from providing the public full disclosure on his shady left wing front operation.
If it turns out, as many suspect, that these fraudulent polls were funded using money taken from union treasuries, this might turn out to be the most politically expensive lawsuit in history. We might just be witnessing the permanent tarnishing of the carefully cultivated golden boy sheen of Markos Moulitsas, who could be revealed as nothing more than another big labor shill. At best, Moulitsas will be seen as a naïve political player who thought he could buy millions of dollars worth of polling at pennies on the dollar and expect it to maintain high quality standards.
Perhaps he should have been clued in by his pollster doing his statistical compilations at the local Kinko’s.
Kos’ only hope for redemption is to open his books and answer the following questions:
1. What was the intent of the polls?
2. Who were the polls intending to help?
3. Who paid for the polls, and where did that money originate?
4. Were the polls provided to political candidates, and if so, which one’s?
Failure to answer these simple questions will leave political insiders snickering when the latest golden boy launches his next venture. It is time for Kos to come clean.
Rick Manning is the Director of Communications for Americans for Limited Government.
